PPRS changes delayed

The Department of Health has postponed the date on which pharmaceutical companies will be required to reduce the price of its non-exclusive medicines

The Department of Health has postponed the date on which pharmaceutical companies will be required to reduce the price of its non-exclusive medicines.

The new Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS), a joint initiative from the Department of Health (DH) and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), was due to take effect from January 1, 2009.

A key part of this new scheme is a requirement for pharmaceutical companies to reduce the price of their branded medicines once they are off-patent to bring them more inline with the price of generic equivalents. The DH has since decided that a public consultation is required, which will delay the launch of the scheme by at least three months.

This change is likely to cause uncertainty for pharmaceutical companies after they agreed a deal earlier this year to reduce prices of branded generic drugs to 1.5 times the reimbursement rate for generics. Any change to this rate will also have a negative impact on manufacturers of generic medicines.